London 2 Paris Charity Ride Completed!

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, MarketMakers faced the brave challenge of cycling from London to Paris.

On the 22nd of August the MarketMakers, Lead Forensics and Really B2B charity cycle team enjoyed a well deserved cold beer under the Eiffel Tower after cycling 190 miles in 15.5 hours – smashing the target of 24 hours! The team started the journey at Buckingham Palace and whilst there were many pit stops, sore behinds and various setbacks along the way, it didn’t stop the team completing the challenge with a fighting spirit in true MarketMakers style.

The event took place as part of our annual fundraising with our charity partner, ‘Building schools for Africa.’ MarketMakers organise various events, throughout the year raising funds in aid of Building schools for Africa. We’re really proud to be one of the leading contributors for such a fantastic cause.

The charity cycle team were ready and raring to go. However the road to glory was a bumpy one!

Top Highlights from the team!

Daryl Silk had 6 punctures in one day

James Nelson having shaved legs for the event

Sleeping on the floor of an ancient tin can ferry

Louise, Steve, Hazel and Matt all fell over

Apprehended by the Parisian police on the Arc De Triumph for crossing 5 lanes of traffic to the centre roundabout

Riding down the motorway and, again, being apprehended by the police

Survived running every single red light in Paris

Riding on the left directly towards traffic and wondering why the French were shouting at them

Riding through a tunnel in the pitch black with no lights

Claire chatting up a man in Gournebray to sponsor us €20

Dan Barber’s tyre exploding out of nowhere!

Charmain Cripps doing the whole thing on a mountain bike – what a trooper!

Honked at 16 times on day 1

Honked at 28 times on day 2

Having to shower in the mouldy freight drivers’ caravan at the ferry port

280 Oreo cookies consumed in total

Claire,Ava and Robyn shouting and cheering on random cyclist groups mistaking them for Team MM then very sheepishly apologising to strangers

Sweet talking a cleaner at McDonalds to open the toilets to us at 7am (it didn’t open until 10!) then all of the team taking advantage!

Having to set off at 5:30am in the pitch black and pouring rain then getting lost and having to double back after 20 minutes!

Everyone got lost at some point and there were lots of sore backsides

In total the team completed 190 miles each over the 2 days x 17 cyclists = 3230 miles which is great timing everyone!

Overall it was a tough couple of days for the team. However, they had amazing experience and it was such great achieving in aid of a fantastic cause.